I'm Baaaaack!

I know, just when you thought you were rid of me. Tomorrow I'll step up to the comment plate in earnest but for now it's about time I updated. The chaos that was has mostly subsided and what hasn't I can't control anyway, so why worry? Let's just say that my boss has accepted a new job in the face of potential corporate reorganization and only the powers that be know what that leaves in store for me. Unfortunately, they aren't talking, so until they do I've decided not to fret about it.

In other news, TeamRockstar's latest adventure was a smashing success!!! We scooted off after work last Friday on another trip to Beantown. All I can say is, sure, the roundabout is the most fucked up invention ever and they have no idea what a street sign is, but, either Bostonians are some of the best people or I've just been lucky enough to meet the right ones. Mega-thanks to Bailey the Brave (and her roomate) for putting us up and putting up with us our first night there. She was definitely the hostess with the most-est! As for 'the Brave' part, the shoots began the next morning and the beginning of hers was outside. Do you know how friggin' cold it was in Boston last weekend? I was freezing and I was bundled up. I can't imagine what it must have been like wearing only what she was/wasn't. Then it was off to the studio to set up for a shoot with Strix. While Girlie finished her makeup magic and Tmronin got ready to shoot, I headed off with the next participant in the latest RockStar rampage, the ever-charming Kera, on a desperate tune-retrieval run. Can't say enough nice things about Kera, so go give her some love. After we loaded out and old man winter put an end to the outdoor shoot we had planned with Aleksandria courtesy of an arctic blast and some nasty wind (rescheduled already, don't worry ), we headed to the hotel for an improvised version which you're gonna love. We were joined by Bailey, Kera and Aleksandria's friend so, while Girlie worked her art, I attempted to set up in the tiniest hotel room ever so Tmronin could do what he does best. At this point, let me just say that while Aleksandria took care of the posing and Tmronin played shutterbug, I lived a fantasy of which any 14 year old male would be proud. I mean really... how often does anyone get the chance to sit around in a hotel room with 5 beautiful women and that much nudity? Sometimes it really doesn't suck to be me. Then we ended day 1 by heading off to a nearby restaurant/bar where we met up with Murkling, Jebustheimpaler, and the always delightful Lexie. What a day. Can you say "crashed hard"?

Woke up bright and early on Sunday for a shoot with Palo to start the day off right then headed out for a location shoot with Bowie. What a sweetheart! While that was going on, I got to hang out and chat with Flash_Rockman... most easy-going, laid back guy I've had the privilege to meet on these adventures. If you're ever in Boston, check him out at Ristorante Fiore where he's a chef. That was followed up by a smashing set with Sinergy, that I can't tell you much about cuz I was too busy packing up for the long ride home.

In the end, another extraordinary weekend for the TeamRockstar files. Now to recover and get ready for the NYC adventures next weekend!!!

And don't forget to show some love for Squeak on her latest set that we shot!

'Til next time... hope all is well for everyone in SGLand!!!

Thank God the 'joy' of the holidays is over!

Well, I figured it was about time I crawled back out of the hole I somehow crawled into. It's amazing how one can fall 3 months behind by taking a month long vacation. In that time, I managed to travel to 12 different states, D.C. and British Columbia. It's pretty bad (or good ) when you need a vacation to recover from your vacation. All in all, the adventure went pretty well and included planes, trains and automobiles, Christmas with family and friends, silliness beyond imagination, yet another epic ski trip, and shoots in NYC and Boston. A BIG shout out to everyone I had the privilege to meet on those excursions...great people, all, and I look forward to further shenanigans.

Speaking of TeamRockstar, our next bit of craziness is already scheduled for Philly on the 21st and 22nd of this month. Even though I'm just starting to catch up, I can't wait to see what that weekend has in store. I've already met some of the people set for shoots that weekend and know they are a helluva lot of fun to be around, so it should be interesting... to say the least! For anybody interested, the shoots we've shot that have gone live so far can be found here and we've got (I'm guessing) about the same number more that have been accepted but haven't gone live yet. If you like what we're doing, feel free to drop by our directory listing and leave some love. (hint, hint )

Ok, that's enough blithering out of me for now. Hope everyone survived the holidays and that all is well in SGLand!!!

Is this holiday season INSANE, or what!?! Just got back from our annual ski/snowboard adventure in British Columbia and now I'm off again in a few hours. One of these days I'll slow down...probably right after I die.

So the trip was a blast, even if the snow wasn't exactly up to levels we've gotten used to over the years. Tmronin and I spent the first day hanging out with friends in Vancouver before going to Tojo's that evening for some of the best sushi on the planet! More hanging out the next day then off to Whistler for 5 days of sliding down the mountain. First day out, Tmronin tweaked his ankle pretty well, so drop by and give him a pity party whenever he gets around to posting pictures of that black, blue and green mess. I hear he looked really good doing it, though. We were joined on day 3 by another friend who just got his SG membership and needs to get off his ass and fix that 'anonymous' situation. (Hint, hint ) Anyway, since the snow wasn't so great, that meant we made a little less time for snow-sliding and a little more time for drinking We went to see the Dayglo Abortions at The Boot Pub, but I really can't say whether they were any good or not, thanks to a prior run-in with a bit of Absinthe. Yes, the real stuff is legal in BC.

So, for once, I didn't break anything and we finished out the week with a beer in hand then headed back to the airport in Vancouver. Finally made it home around 1am, after 14.5 hours of travel, to find that my furnace had died while I was gone. Just fucking wonderful...it's 36 degrees inside my house and I'm trying to sleep. That went as well as you would expect until I remembered the sleeping bag in my winter camping gear that's rated to -15 degrees. Toasty boy finally got some sleep then spent all day the next day getting my furnace fixed. That meant that the only time I had remaining to do Christmas shopping was today. I hate shopping. I mean I really HATE shopping. Got it all done in 5 hours, though, since I spent the day before figuring out what to get while I was waiting on the furnace guys. And that brings us up to now, and me typing this while I should be packing to head down south in a few hours for the inevitable mayhem that is Christmas with the family.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and that Santa is good to all. Keep warm and stay kewl !!!

Well, as usual, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I really wanted to update about the craziness that was last weekend, but I'm off for the airport in 4 or 5 hours and I've got to get at least a little sleep. I'm headed off to Whistler in British Columbia for an extended bit of high-speed-freezing down the mountain. The next week will hopefully be filled with good food, good friends, great snow and NO injuries!!! I'll let you know how it went when I get back!

As far as last weekend goes, Girlie described it better than I ever could anyway, so check out #2 in her Dec. 13 update here. That pretty much tells it like it was. See you in a week or so.

Well, as usual, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I really wanted to update about the craziness that was last weekend, but I'm off for the airport in 4 or 5 hours and I've got to get at least a little sleep. I'm headed off to Whistler in British Columbia for an extended bit of high-speed-freezing down the mountain. The next week will hopefully be filled with good food, good friends, great snow and NO injuries!!! I'll let you know how it went when I get back!

As far as last weekend goes, Girlie described it better than I ever could anyway, so check out #2 in her update here. That pretty much tells it like it was. See you in a week or so.

Sincerest apologies to all I haven't commented or responded to in the last week or so, but things have been a little crazy around here lately. Last day of work for the year was Monday, off to SC on Tuesday, back here by 5am on Thursday and off again in a few minutes for NYC before heading to Boston on Saturday for what will hopefully turn out to be another photoshootastic weekend with the rest of the TeamRockstar crew.

I'll try for a real update when I get back on Monday. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Had a ridiculously boring and horrendously inconvenient mandatory 'training session' at work today. As if I didn't have 400 other things to complete before the end of the year. Apparently some idiot, somewhere, at some time, wrote something in an email that got the company into trouble... So, in their infinite wisdom and instead of just firing the guilty imbecile, the morons in charge force us all to attend 'Effective Business Communication Training'. Oh, please! News flash, dipshit: I am perfectly capable of making complete sentences on my own and really don't need you telling me how to be concise and direct. While we're on the subject, I'm also perfectly aware that even though this is a multi-billion dollar corporation, the IT department is full of fools and your servers suck so bad a 10 year old could hack them. Therefore, I seriously don't need this colossal waste of time for some over-enthusiastic corporate nitwit to inform me that I shouldn't include sensitive or proprietary information in email.

I guess my views on the matter were pretty thinly veiled when I stepped up to the corporate cheerleader, otherwise known as yet another twit from Human Resources, handing out cheesy little name tags for this fiasco when he asked in an overly cheery voice, "And what should your name tag say?"

My response: "Grumpy Bastard"

And I've got a sneaking suspicion that this weekend is going to royally suck, too. Sometimes I just want to tell the whole world to

There are weekends, and then there are WEEKENDS!!! and this was one of those. TeamRockstar was in full swing...and a little overloaded, as usual.

It all started off on Friday night with a potential SG set for the charming Miss Squeak who made every move appear so completely effortless it was amazing. I won't give anything away, but let's just say that the exact location was quite unexpected. So, after setup, while Tmronin took the shots, I spent the evening answering questions. Go congratulate Squeak on her new place! After that, Tmronin and I just had to close down a certain bar we've been known to frequent. Big mistake, considering what was to come.

Saturday began waaaayy too early as we dragged our carcasses out of our respective racks and headed off to a wonderful studio in Philly for some portfolio building shots of the always delightful Maxi. I must say that Maxi makes the most incredible human cranberry I have ever seen. She has one of the shots up in her journal, so go give her some .

Then came shoots for two more potential SG sets with Ember. This was her first shoot with people she didn't already know so I hope we were able to make it as fun for her as she did for us. Ember was a natural, Tmronin got some great shots and I think we all had a blast...especially with the second set. (What? You didn't think I was going to give anything away, did you. You'll just have to wait to see and I promise you won't be disappointed. )

After that, a non-SG shoot, then studio clean-up and load out. Tmronin and I headed back to my place where we met up with the ever awe-inspiring Brighton to discuss future shoot ideas. Brighton's first set went live today, so go give her some . While you are at it, bow down and worship like you know you should. And yes, Tmronin took those shots, so go give him some love, too. So, finally, Saturday came to a close. I actually heard Tmronin say something I never thought I'd hear. After 1300 shots that day he actually said his trigger finger was tired. A few beers later, we finally called it a night.

If I thought Saturday came too soon, Sunday was a sumbitch. While I ventured off to retrieve the illustrious Girlie so she could add her FancyBitch touch to the day's adventures, Tmronin set up at another studio in Philly for a frigid adventure with a very temperature-brave SG hopeful where I tried my best not to become a human kite while the wind tried to pull me and the 3x6 foot reflector I tried to hold steady off into the wild blue yonder. That was followed by another SG hopeful shoot with an incredibly energetic friend who Girlie worked yet another of her magical makeup miracles on. (No hints on either of those shoots, you just have to wait ) Next up, another non-SG shoot for a good friend before setting off for another location to shoot Gadget, Iggy and Mandarin. Unfortunately, TeamRockstar was running a little late so that shoot had to be rescheduled. Instead, the 8 of us (add Jimmieknuckles and another guy whose site name I didn't catch...oops) decided to go out for sushi and laughs which was fine with me because I got to meet some really great people I hadn't met before. Let's just say that either we are all collectively banned from that restaurant, or we have a reserved table for life. I'm not really sure which, but we had fun and Mandarin and Gadget did their best to promote the site. If you've never had the privilege of spending time around Mandarin, you are missing out. It's been a long time since I've met anyone who seems to enjoy life more. After that, Tmronin and Girlie had to head back to Brooklyn while I dragged my exhausted ass home to pass out until work Monday morning.

I don't know how many shots we took over the whole weekend, but it was a lot. How many, Steve?

All in all, it was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Thanks to everyone involved for making it happen.

Have you ever felt like you were just ? Sometimes I think someone should just before I get by my own delusions. Naaa...it wouldn't do any good. I'd just get . I'm too hard-headed to listen anyway. The way I see it, I've got a few choices. I can either sit around and , get together with a friend and or go to the range and . I think I need to go to the range. There's nothing quite as pitiful as watching two guys until they . Ok, it's official... I need
. I've completely lost my mind but at least I'm .


Well, that was fun . Hope everyone got as much of a out of it as I did.

Well, thanks to Tmronin, I've been tagged to list 20 (hopefully) interesting things about my life. Here goes...you be the judge.

1) My first car was a dune buggy. A 1969 Empi Imp, to be exact. Remember the cartoon 'Speed Buggy'? That's it! Volkswagen based and metallic lime green with a chrome stinger exhaust! I loved that car so much I still have it...now if I can just get around to restoring it.

2) Now I drive a truck. Plans for it: 6" ProComp suspension lift, 35"x12.5" Nitto Mud Grapplers on 18" teflon coated rims (I'm too lazy to clean 'em) and enough candlepower to make the sun blush! Oh yeah...somebody's going to get crushed.

3) I'm addicted to speed. Not the drug, I just love to go fast. Fastest on 4 wheels: it's a tie at 135mph in a canary yellow 1969 Jag 12-cylinder convertible (with the top down!!!) and an El Camino (of all things). I wasn't driving either time, and thankfully the insane friend driving the El Camino managed to hook the tire and rim over the 6" edge of the asphalt as we went into a curve marked 35 at 135mph. We survived, but the tire and rim didn't.

4) I've had the pleasure of living in or visiting 4 countries, 1 self-governing commonwealth, and both the British and US Virgin Islands, whatever they are.

5) I once drove 12,000 miles in 6 weeks on a cross country oddysey in a truck that got 12 miles to the gallon as a graduation present to myself. Drove the entire length of I-40 from Wilmington, NC to Barstow, CA and then went nuts. Wyoming and Texas were in there somewhere. More states than I can remember and more fun than you can imagine!

6) I used to hike a lot. I figure, conservatively, that I've hiked over 1000 miles with food and everything else I needed on my back. Most of it was in New Mexico and the Appalachians. I miss New Mexico...there is nothing quite like having a bear come into camp to say hello and clean your dishes for you!

7) I'm the only idiot I know who has had 4 skull fractures and managed to come out no worse for wear.

8) Injury total so far: 4 skull fractures, 2 cheekbone fractures, broken jaw, crushed wisdom tooth, torn up shoulder, 70+ stitches in my neck, 1 more in my scalp, broken left arm, two ribs torn away from my sternum that bruised my heart, dislocated right shoulder, dislocated and separated left shoulder, broken nose (3 times: once playing football, once wrestling and once by the doc to put it back where it belonged), torn Achilles tendon, shot twice (once in the butt with rocksalt for trespassing as a kid and once by a kid by accident while dove hunting), 9 broken fingers (one by being bitten by an opponent while wrestling), dog bit twice and bitten by a copperhead once. I'd say I've had enough.

9) After the worst of my experiences (see most humbling moment), the docs decided I needed my head checked to see how much of my brains had been rattled loose. Not too much, it turns out. I'm now a member of Mensa, Intertel, and PGS.

10) No one has ever correctly guessed what I do for a living. Number of publications in scientific journals: 22.

11) Two friends and I once built a pyramid out of beer cans as we drank them. Six days and 14 cases later, we had one helluva beer-amid, but we don't remember much else from that beach trip.

12) I grew up on a farm and I can't live without critters. Pets I've had the pleasure of knowing through the years: Horses, cows, chickens, goats, dogs, cats, mice, rats, snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs, ferrets, a pygmy goat, a chinchilla, a raccoon and a fox.

13) I'm the only idiot I know who has managed to pick up and carry a wild, live, adult red-tailed hawk for over a mile without being torn apart. I'll never forget that.

14) Summer freedom is: any time I get to spend on the road on my bike. I love to ride. Whenever the sun is shining, that's all the excuse I need. Rode through a hail storm once and ended up with a purple chest and hands I couldn't use for two days. That was the end of inclement weather riding for me.

15) Did I mention I was a speed freak? Fastest on 2 wheels: >117mph. Beyond that I can no longer read the thumb sized electronic speedo I have on my bike

16) Winter freedom is: any time I get to slide down a big hill on two slick planks. I'm an avid/rabid skier and head up to British Columbia (Whistler) every year (for the last 9 or 10, anyway) to try to break my neck with good friends, Tmronin among them.

17) Did I mention I was a speed freak? Fastest on skis: 67.88mph, and that wasn't even on my long boards. I've been faster, but that was the fastest when being timed

18) Coldest I've endured: Temp. -15F, wind chill -70F. Skied all day in that mess. That's Stowe, VT in January for you. And -15 was the HIGH for that day. Yes, I am nuts.

19) Somewhere in Kansas while on that cross country adventure I mentioned earlier I ran across, at a truck stop, the funniest t-shirt I've ever seen. Front: Elvis is Alive... Back: ...and blowing sailors for spare change and candy bars. I know, Steve, I know...I'm going to hell for that.

20) Funniest quote ever: These words of wisdom fell from my father's lips as we sat in a very nice restaurant soon after our waiter left the table. Let's just say that the only word that comes to mind to describe this particular waiter is flaming. Dad said quietly, so that only I could hear in order not to offend anyone, and I quote: "Something tells me that boy can no longer hit 'high C' on the butt trumpet." I'm certain I shortened my own life with the effort I put into trying not to burst into hysterical laughter...it still wasn't enough.

Ok, that's it, and now comes the passing of the torch. Tmronin tagged Brighton, Logan and me...3-5 you say; how about 4. I'll tag Acidflesh, Derelict, Jessikaaaa and, just because I'm curious, Midnyte. Tag, you're it!!!